Breaking: Obama and Salazar to Sell Out Polar Bears, Bush-Style

Update: See the statements from Defenders of Wildlife and the National Wildlife Federation.

It's taking all the restraint I have right now not to say what I really want to say about and to President Barack Obama and Secretary of the Interior Sleazear Salazar.

At least with Bush and his administration, we knew what we were getting. We knew he didn't give a damn about animals. We knew he and his appointees would always put corporate and agribusiness interests ahead of animals.

Obama was supposed to be different. What-the-hell-ever. This administration's decision to throw polar bears to the wolves of corporate America and to throw the wolves to the ranchers and hunters is an outrage.

The shelter dogs. The gray wolves. The polar bears. Whom are you going to sell out next, fellas?

AP: Obama Sticks with Bush-Era Polar Bear Rule

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Interior Department is letting stand a Bush administration regulation that limits protection of polar bears from global warming, three people familiar with the decision told The Associated Press.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar will announce on Friday that he will not rescind the Bush rule, although Congress gave him authority to do so. . . .

A year ago, the iconic polar bear was declared a threatened species because global warming is causing a severe decline in Arctic sea ice, the bear's habitat. But the Bush administration rules limit that protection, saying no action outside the Arctic region could be considered a threat to the bear under the law.

Environmentalists have strongly opposed the rule as have many members of Congress. They argued the limits violate the Endangered Species Act because the release of greenhouse gases from power plants, factories and cars indirectly threaten the bear's survival.

In March, federal lawmakers authorized Salazar to scrap the Bush regulation without going through a long regulatory process. The deadline for such action was Saturday, 60 days after Congress acted.

Salazar was expected to say that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will further study the limitations established by the "special rule" issued by the Bush administration in March 2008 when the bear was officially declared a threatened specie because of the reduction in Arctic sea ice, which is the bear's habitat.

But business groups and their supporters in Congress have argued strongly that the Endangered Species Act is the improper vehicle for addressing climate change and that there are other ways to deal with the global environmental issue. . . .

The Bush special rule for the polar bear "significantly undercuts protections for the polar bear by omitting global warming pollution as a factor in the polar bear's risk of extinction," said Jane Kochersperger, a spokeswoman for Greenpeace, which delivered 80,000 petitions to the Interior Department after they were collected by the two environmental groups.